


The Italian Job

by harin91



Category: Actor RPF, Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Bilingual Problems, M/M, One Shot, Tumblr Prompt, italian joe hc, very short and very fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 12:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18011027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harin91/pseuds/harin91
Summary: "Though now he knows that Joe is in his Italian phase.Which is rare, but not the rarest. He goes in that space of mind and activates that area of his bilingual brain sometimes, when he needs to concentrate on accents and speeches."- basically, Joe talks to himself in Italian





	The Italian Job

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> This is my very first try at pure RPF and Mazlek… I’m kinda nervous!  
> It is also on Tumblr on its [original post](http://brightly-painted-canvas.tumblr.com/post/183240007403/heeyyy-so-u-said-ur-requests-were-open-but-do-hcs).  
> Of course it’s just for fun and fandom, I’m in no way claiming this to be anywhere close to reality. Not beta-readed and English is not my first language.  
> See at the end for more notes.

It’s around 8pm when Rami finally gets home from the set of Mr Robot.  
  
Season 3 is going great so far and Sam has kinda implied Rami might be able to wrap earlier if they keep up with the flow they’re having, which, with the super-secret-side-project-which-is-definitely-NOT-a-Queen-biopic-movie ready to take off, may had been the best news Rami has had in weeks (apart from being confirmed for the super secret movie’s leading part, of course).  
  
Still, there are a lot of days of production left and a whole lot more scenes to shot, so Rami spends his days dutifully on set, studying his script as Elliot when he’s not required in the scene and acting when he is.  
As he gets home he can leave Elliot outside for a few hours between dinner and bed, have a shower, dress in warm comfortable clothes, put on the fake teeth that had been recently delivered by a 20th Century Fox’s production assistant and start practicing The Freddie Mercury’s moves, voice and posture.  
  
Which is exactly what he’s looking forward to do right now, as he turns the keys and opens the door of the NYC apartment he’s been sharing for the last three year.

  
As soon as he gets inside, he starts to realise his roommate might be home as well, judging from the lights switched on in the living room and the stream of incoherent and too loudly mumbled curses coming from the couch’s direction.  
His theories are confirmed as he rounds the corner and finds Joe sprawled on their sofa, his feet planted on one cushion and his head hanging almost upside-down as he’s laying with his back against the armrest.  
  
Rami is, despite all, not surprised: Joe is, even under totally normal circumstances, a little bit eccentric and a little bit unexplainable.  
In the past few days though, Joe has been working on some script (Rami is still not allowed to know if Joe’s own creation or a new movie he has been casted in, since Joe has refused to tell him by calling it “a surprise” ) and his crazy had come out of the box a little more.  
Not that Rami can call the behaviour atypical: he himself gets awfully different from his usual self when he’s practicing or acting, especially complicated and layered characters as Elliot Alderson or Freddie Mercury.  
They’re used to one another’s acting methods by now: not to forget they met on the set of what might had been the most difficult show they had acted in their life so far. “The Pacific” had been an emotional rollercoaster under every sense and perspective and had tested their friendship and knowledge of one another since day one.  
  
Still, Joe’s current position half off the furniture and constant stream of babbles isn’t something that can be considered normal artist-in-the-middle-of-creation behaviour, so Rami sits heavily on the armchair opposite the occupied couch and says: “Hi, J.” trying to approach the other with a casual conversation.  
  
  
Joe doesn’t interrupt his unintelligible soliloquy; the only thing he does to acknowledge Rami’s presence is wave weakly with his right hand. The gesture causes his body to shift even further down the side of the couch, leaving the top of his head just an inch from the floor. His short red hair are already touching the parquet.  
  
“You alright down there?” asks Rami, folding his arms and leaning against the back of the armchair like he is ready to study the behaviour of a wild Mazzello in his natural habitat.  
  
“Sto pensando.” comes the still mumbled and still completely obscure to Rami response.  
  
Though now he knows that Joe is in his Italian phase.  
Which is rare, but not the rarest. He goes in that space of mind and activates that area of his bilingual brain sometimes, when he needs to concentrate on accents and speeches.  
As if it was easier for him to loop into a British or an Alabamian accent if his brain made the connection from Italian better that from his standard American English.  
Rami had found it fascinating the first time he had heard him do the thing: in fact, he himself had tried to tackle a difficult part with a difficult accent starting from the bit and pieces of Arabic he had been used to speak and hear at home (especially when he was little) or the Spanish he had learned from his aunts and his school years, but he had renounced very early in trying to replicate the technique.  
His brain just worked in entirely another complex way.  
  
Joe is still talking to himself and at this point Rami is just getting curious about the whole conversation he’s having in his own head. He bits back a smile and concentrates to gather the tiny pieces of broken Italian he has collected in his own languages storage, from years of knowing Joe and his very numerous Italian American family: “Come va, amore mio?” he asks.  
  
“Devo trovare un senso logico a questo stupido modo di parlare inglese.” is the weak reply and Rami only gets that something is stupid and that something in English doesn’t make sense. Cue the Italian, he guesses.  
  
“Va bene.” says Rami in a broken imitation of what Joe always tells his brother when he’s on the phone, just to humour him some more.  
He’s already contemplating getting up to have his long awaited shower and prepare dinner for the both of them when Joe snaps up like he’s been hit by a lighting bolt and looks at Rami with an incredulous look: “Cazzo, Rams! Sei un genio!” he exclaims, excitedly.  
  
Rami looks puzzled at him and asks: “¿Que?” not even realising he’s mixing Italian and Spanish at this point.  
  
“Va bene!” repeats Joe, like it’s obvious: “Okay.” he adds, with an accent so British and unique that Rami is absolutely unable to recognise the origin.  
  
Joe is repeating the word and the accent over and over as he gets up from the couch, stretching his back from the awful position he has kept it in for the past who knows how many hours and coming closer to Rami to Eskimo-kiss him with a funny expression to match the other’s still confused one.  
  
“Grazie, amore.” he says softly, pecking Rami on the lips before straightening his position and offering his hand to help the other actor up: “Time for shower and food.” he adds.  
  
  
English speaking Joe is back, Rami thinks with a bit of disappointment.  
It must show on his face, because Joe smirks and asks: “What’s up, babe?”.  
  
Rami hums and step away, leading the way toward the bedroom to get a fresh change of indoor clothes: “Don’t know, Joey. I might have started to think you sound sexy when you speak Italian.” he jokes.  
  
“Sexy, uh? Noted.” laughs Joe, suddenly circling his arms around Rami’s middle, slowing down his movements and keeping him near. Rami half-heartedly swats him on the elbow, but keeps still in the embrace: “Might be able to use this new information to my advantage later, when we’re ready for bedtime.” he suggests.  
  
Rami shakes his head, amused by Joe’s ridiculous try at flirting.  
“Okay, okay.” he mocks him, trying to copy the strange accent Joe was reproducing earlier but sounding a whole lot more like the Freddie Mercury’s way of talking he has been learning recently: “Wouldn’t that be nice to experiment.” he concedes, adding: “Wouldn’t also be nice to let me know what character you’re working on these days, uh? So I can maybe help you out?”.  
He knows his best pout and puppy-eyes look do not work when Joe can’t see them, so he turns around in his arms to give it a better shot.  
  
Joe only laughs: “Oh, nice try. But no, it’s a surprise. Give it time and you’ll know.” he says with a conspiratorial smile.  
  
Rami sighs and nods: “Va bene, habibi.” mixing his and Joe’s heritages in one single phrase.  
  
Joe kisses him then, suddenly very passionately: “That’s sexy too, you know?”.  
  
Rami smirks: “Noted.” before leading them both out of the bedroom.  
  
  
\---  
  
**Notes** : in [this interview](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZatAR2Ozz4M&t=OGE2ZTQ3NjY5NTk4ZWZmOWE4ODNjZjA3MDlmZDI0MTM4OGRlOTUzYSx1b3k1WTZjVg%3D%3D&b=t%3AcVK-kMAoaZWF2nWCReaFnQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fbrightly-painted-canvas.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F183240007403%2Fheeyyy-so-u-said-ur-requests-were-open-but-do-hcs&m=1) Joe said the word that always looped him back into character for playing John Deacon is ‘okay’ (which by the way is similar to Rami’s ‘alright, alright’).  
  
 I read [this post](https://mazlektov.tumblr.com/post/183067476367/heeyyy-so-u-said-ur-requests-were-open-but-do-hcs) a few days ago and I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I had to write something based on the prompt and on the reply.  
I am Italian and a screenwriter so I kinda get in the same exact mind-space they’re describing for Joe but mostly for me it happens with English when I’m on a project in which I have to concentrate “creatively” on both languages.  
  
**Translations:**  
_Sto pensando_ \- I’m thinking  
_Come va, amore mio?_  - How are you, my love?  
_Devo trovare un senso logico a questo stupido modo di parlare inglese_  - I need to find logical sense to this stupid way of speaking in English  
_Va bene_  - Okay/Alright  
_Cazzo!_  - Fuck! (not literally but it’s what we would use to swear in this kind of situation… and also we swear a lot)  
_Sei un genio_  - you’re a genius  
_Grazie, amore_  - thanks, love  
_habibi_  - also ‘my love’ but in Arabic


End file.
